Man sentenced for attack with acid

San Diego  A man who threw sulfuric acid on a woman who was washing her clothing at a Golden Hill laundromat last year was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison.

Arturo Jose Reyes, 56, pleaded guilty in October to one count of assault with a caustic chemical. He will also have to pay just under $8,000 restitution to the victim, Lizet Patricia Lopez, who suffered burns to her face, chest, arms and back.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Laura Halgren noted that Reyes appeared to have been suffering from some kind of mental delusion when he committed the unprovoked attack on a stranger. The judge said the report from Reyes’ psychological evaluation will be sent to prison authorities, so that he can be screened for mental health treatment while in custody.

Reyes has a 1989 conviction in San Diego County for vehicular manslaughter, said Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Furnari.

Reyes was arrested on Sept. 22 after he threw acid at the victim, who had been walking in and out of the Coin Laundry off 25th Street and Broadway, unloading bags of clothing from her SUV.

Lopez said in court Wednesday that she saw Reyes when she parked her vehicle early that morning. Later, when she was inside the laundromat, she saw him throwing something at her car and she went outside to move it.

That’s when Reyes tossed the liquid at her and she felt her skin start to burn. She heard him say, “You are throwing the devil at me.”

Lopez was treated at a hospital for second-degree burns.

Lopez said she no longer feels safe when she leaves her home, and is reminded of the attack every time she looks at her scars.

“This has been the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life,” she said.